Millennium Development Goals: 5 Achievements You Should Know About

7 July 2014

Millions of people’s lives have improved due to concerted global, regional, national and local efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which serve as the foundation for the next global development agenda, according to a new report launched today by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

NEW YORK - Today UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a new UN report that highlights the progress made in achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) to lift people out of extreme poverty and improve their futures. While many MDG targets have been reached already, the report also underlines that the world is lagging behind on other goals and a final push is vital to achieve the desired results.

Eliminating hunger and chronic malnutrition unlocks the door to every single development objective, whether it is poverty eradication, education, health, equity or economic growth ”
-Ertharin Cousin

Ertharin Cousin, WFP Executive Director, attended the presentation of the MDG 2014 report in Madrid, joining a round table with Amalia Navarro, UNDP, and Gonzalo Robles, Secretary General of Spanish International Cooperation. Cousin emphasized that the global community has made great progress to reduce hunger and poverty as part of the Millennium Development Goals. The number of hungry people has gone down by 173 million since 1990, and poverty was cut in half since 2000 – making this the most successful anti-poverty campaign in history: "But we need to do much more," Cousin said noting that one in eight people stilllack year-round access to nutritious food ­-- that is 842 million people.

Here a list of the key achievements as described in the report. (Click here to download the full report)

1. Over the past 20 years, the likelihood of a child dying before age five has been nearly cut in half, which means about 17,000 children are saved every day.

2. Globally, the maternal mortality ratio dropped by 45 per cent between 1990 and 2013.

3. Antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected people has saved 6.6 million lives since 1995, and expanding its coverage could save many more.

4. Between 2000 and 2012, an estimated 3.3 million deaths from malaria were averted due to substantial expansion of malaria interventions.

5. Since 1995, efforts to fight tuberculosis saved an estimated 22 million lives.

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Hunger can be eliminated in our lifetimes

This requires comprehensive efforts to ensure that every man, woman and child enjoy their Right to Adequate Food; women are empowered; priority is given to family farming; and food systems everywhere are sustainable and resilient.